Kosnyjek
In the freezing waters of the North Herony Sea, a small chain of islands- the Sulduvak Cluster- connected by sturdy bridges that create the small but most industrially potent nation in the Trifecta- the Socialist State of Kosnyjek. It is not a very pleasant place to live- the weather is harsh, the seas are brutal, and the animal life is aggressive to pretty much everything. It's cold almost all year round, save for a couple of the midsummer months when the weather becomes warm and foggy instead of icy and snowy. Were it not for the broken remnants of several Federation and Rebel installations on these islands, the only thing that would be left in this desolate corner of the planet would be a bunch of frozen skeletons grinning up at the skies. The Sulduvak Cluster was first inhabited fifty years after the end of the Wars, by a people known as the Kossacks. The Kossacks were one of many refugee groups who followed the ocean currents in the hopes of finding habitable landmasses, they're notable because they're one of the few who actually succeeded. After their wanderings brought them to the Sulduvaks, they found a number of abandoned installations- supposedly just 'refugee camps' and 'aid stations' and the like, but in actuality they were war materiel production facilities. A couple hundred years of abandonment in fierce weather had rendered most of them useless, but two remained; the only two that would make settlement possible. A biodome dedicated to hydroponics, and an MDR (matter disassembler/reassembler) factory. An operable biodome alone was reason enough to bother with the efforts of settling the Cluster, but the presence of an intact MDR factory was like a gift from the One itself. But no wondrous discovery goes unpunished- both facilities were blank slates. The only systems that hadn't degraded and become worthless were tertiary backups with no stored information, only capable of keeping the facilities from going completely dark. All their databanks were gone, eroded and corrupted by disuse or malfunction. Any new information would have to be put in through special scanning devices which somehow study every aspect of an offered sample and add it to newly formed databases. While this was no problem for the hydroponics dome, it did represent a problem for the MDR factory- the Kossacks had shown up with little more than the clothes on their backs and a few swiftly dwindling tons of perishable food supplies, they had basically nothing to offer the MDR's scanners to build new things. As the SSK did not have contact with the rest of the Trifecta for almost two and a half centuries, this meant two and a half centuries of trying to rebuild from scratch. By the time they joined the international community, only a few handfuls of renaissance technologies remained that could be added to the MDR's production libraries. This makes them invaluable for keeping things like Paradise City's Atlas class reactor going, and they can make just about any material good imaginable; as long as fresh materials can be supplied, finished goods can be shipped out, and the Director doesn't impose any restrictions on exports. Even with the boons provided by the biodome and the MDR, the SSK lives in a constant state of extreme resource scarcity, which led to the creation of a near-communist political state. Everyone, to some level, must look after (or at least chip in to look after) everyone else, and nearly all resources must be careful ly allocated and shared to ensure mutual survival, under the direct government supervision and planning. Over the years this process has become quite refined and efficient; in fact the only reason the Kossacks even use money is because foreign imports provide surpluses of certain kinds of products which provide channels for the trade of legal tender for unique goods- like specially made furniture, games, toys, movies, access to broadcasting, vehicles, and so forth- which, while it causes trouble for the government's planning models, is tolerated and allowed because all of their trade partners rely on money, and so must they if they're to have a real international market presence. The SSK is dominated by the Director, an anonymous individual who is appointed by the Party, which is a number of elected officials from across the Sulduvak Cluster. The Director wields near-absolute power in Kosnyjek, his or her only checks and balances coming in the form of the Party, who are in turn kept in check by the proletariat. It is a very simple system: the Party collects information regarding the status of the proletariat- needs, wants, accounting data, expenditures, values from other nations- and passes it up to the Director, who- with the aid of numerous official ministers and counselors- handles most executive and legislative functions. If the Director is successful, the people are happy and prosperous, and the nation prospers. If the Director fails, the people demand replacement by any means necessary, and if change does not come fast enough the People's Army will step in to officiate matters before angry mobs rise up and wreck the place. Such occurrences are mercifully rare, though when they pop up they tend to end with a tyrant being put against a wall and summarily executed. It's not a pretty system by any means, but it accomplishes what it sets out to do. Kossack Law SSK The Party Kosnyian Foreign Relations Uwibami Back to Main Page